How UTMB Favorite Jim Walmsley Ended Up Dropping Out of the Race

If you were to believe the hype, this year’s Ultra-Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) was to be a showdown between two people: Kilian Jornet and Jim Walmsley. But sometimes hype can be pretty far off the mark, particularly when 100 miles is in play on the highest mountain in the Alps.

Both athletes came into the race in good shape. Walmsley had just decimated the competition at Western States with a course record of 14 hours and 30 minutes. Jornet was fresh off a victory in July’s Marathon du Mont Blanc, lending him both familiarity and confidence on the mountain.

But when the UTMB rolled around, neither man ended up winning the race—or even completing it.

In Jornet’s case, a freak incident—a bee sting to the foot just hours before the start—would be his undoing. Dealing with both swelling and pain due to an allergic reaction, Jornet dropped from the race before the night was over.

For Walmsley, it was an entirely different set of circumstances. Runner’s World caught up with him just after the race to learn the details.

Jim Walmsley and His UTMB Struggles

Leading up to UTMB, Walmsley took a different training approach than in 2017.

“I had to take a bit of a gamble and try to get my training going again pretty quickly after Western States,” he said. “Last year, I took more time off, but it forced my training block for UTMB very close to race day without an ideal taper. This year, the block got moved up and I had more time before the race to rest up and soak in the training. Big elevation, big miles, and big hours.”

“I like to think I’m more willing to push into a pace with an unknown outcome,” he said. “It’s both a strength and a weakness, but I feel it sets me up to surprise myself and do things I may not have otherwise thought possible. It can also set me up for a long, hard day with the lowest of lows, too. I love running this way and it’s what inspires me to train for these races on the biggest stage.”

He began the race true to plan: Walmsley quickly took the lead and maintained it for the first 20 miles or so.

“I felt good and comfortable, and I wanted to make everyone work,” he said. “I looked at this section as very runnable and a warmup lap for what was to come.”

Around this point, Walmsley was joined by Jornet and fellow American Zach Miller, who also took it out fast. “The main guys weren’t letting me go, but no one was pulling away, either,” he said. “It felt exciting and a bit risky.”

As the lead pack headed into the first real climbs, Walmsley let Jornet and Miller set the pace. It was here that he started to feel off.

“I noticed that my breathing and effort level were harder than normal,” he said. “Near the top and on the descent, both Zach and Killian got away from me.”

Walmsley was able to regroup, and rejoined the leaders going into the next aid station. “I passed Killian in the aid station and Zach was still in there when I left, but we all headed into Italy together,” he explained.

In spite of his position, Walmsley noticed he was struggling to stay with Miller and Jornet.

“I tried to settle in and find a pace that could get me back up to them, but it just didn’t feel good,” he said. “I was getting slower and slower. Real food was going down well, but the typical race sugars weren’t appealing to me.”

Heading into the Courmayeur aid station, Walmsley was already quite a bit back from the leaders, who had by now been passed by eventual winner Xavier Thevenard. He spent a full 20 minutes there trying to come around. “I hoped that getting some caffeine in would help, but the race just wasn’t coming back,” he said.

Jim Walmsley at the aid station in Courmayeur, where he was already feeling in trouble.

Courtesy of L. Shauntay Snell

Before long, Walmsley found that hiking was his only option. He continued on for miles at that pace, slipping farther and farther back in his position.

“It was taxing and demoralizing being passed, but the upside is that people were so encouraging when they went by,” he said. “After so much hiking and using different muscles, my foot was feeling strained and I knew it wasn’t smart to continue.”

“I think I was overreaching. I had a great training block, but clearly I wasn’t back yet.”

In retrospect, Walmsley does wonder if taking on Western States and UTMB was too much.

“I think I was overreaching,” he said. “I had a great training block, but clearly I wasn’t back yet.”

Looking forward, Walmsley is slated to run the North Face 50 in San Francisco in November. “I have to look at the calendar and see what I’m up for, if anything, for the rest of 2018,” he said. “Right now I’m going to focus only on recovery.”

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